Solar storm en route

A solar storm is racing toward Earth for Saturday morning, but scientists say not to worry, and the V.P. of Operation with Kitchener Wilmot-Hydro isn’t worried either.

Wilf Meston says they haven’t received a solar-storm notice from the provincial hydro regulator, the Independent Electricity System Operator (I.E.S.O.) for the weekend.

Meston adds, to date, there has never been a problem on the Kitchener-Wilmot grid in relation to solar activity, “To date, when those (solar storm) alerts come through, we have seen no effects.”

“The main thing that’s causing outages right now are animal contacts on the line. Well over half of the outages that we’re seeing for the summer period are caused by mostly squirrels and some birds on the line.”

The blast of charged solar particles is due to arrive Saturday morning and shake Earth’s magnetic field.

Space weather forecasters say it will be a minor event and they don’t expect disruptions to power grids or communications systems. However, the storm could offer glimmering northern lights along the Canada-U.S. border and in Europe.